Living on the wedge

Housing+, a wedge-shaped apartment complex in Denmark has solar arrays on its sloping roof. The entire roof.

Think that "green" is a marketing gimmick used by developers to snag potential buyers into condo developments?

Well, here's a proposed 60-unit apartment complex in Aalborg, Denmark, with an unusual cuneiform shape doesn’t exactly take the renewable energy needs of its future residents lightly. The project, dubbed Housing+, boasts a renewable energy plant that covers the entire surface of the 1,200 square meter sloped roof (winter skiers who dream of hitting the slopes on top of your own home, you’re probably out of luck).

Conceived by C.F. Møller Architects in collaboration with Moe & Brødsgaard, Cenergia, Phillips, Schüco, Erik Juul, and Vogt landscape, the Passive House-compliant building’s south-facing roof-plane — it slopes from 12 stories down to four — can generate 104,400 kWh yearly which completely covering the energy (electricity, heat, hot water) needs of the residents. Plus, there are the four quiet, vertical axis wind turbines on the premises to generate extra juice and recharge the residents’ electric cars as well as other eco-features such as rainwater collection ... check 'em out in the diagram below.